OnePlus 8 Pro review

Our Verdict

The OnePlus 8 Pro delivers a large and beautiful 120Hz brandish, fast functioning and the fastest wireless charging always in a stunning pattern. Just the cameras and 5G could be improve.

For

Bright and beautiful 120Hz brandish
Long battery life
Strong operation
Very good quad cameras
Super fast wired and wireless charging

Against

Curved display causes accidental taps
No mmWave 5G support

Tom'south Guide Verdict

The OnePlus viii Pro delivers a big and beautiful 120Hz display, fast performance and the fastest wireless charging e'er in a stunning design. But the cameras and 5G could be ameliorate.

Pros

+
Bright and beautiful 120Hz display
+
Long bombardment life
+
Strong operation
+
Very good quad cameras
+
Super fast wired and wireless charging

Cons

-
Curved display causes adventitious taps
-
No mmWave 5G support

The OnePlus 8 Pro is a much better deal at present than when it first launched. For $799 (down from $899), yous get premium craftsmanship, and eye-popping half dozen.78-inch display (with 120Hz refresh charge per unit) quad cameras and 5G capability. The OnePlus 8 Pro also offers wireless charging — finally! — and it's the fastest wireless charging we've ever tested.

Is the OnePlus 8 Pro flawless? Nope. The otherwise stunning curved display led to several accidental taps during my OnePlus 8 Pro review. And while the OnePlus 8 Pro's cameras are certainly capable, they're not best in grade.

OnePlus 8 Pro specs

Cost: $799/£799
OS: Android 10 with OxygenOS
Display: half-dozen.78 inches OLED (3168 x 1440), 120Hz
CPU: Snapdragon 865
RAM: 8GB, 12GB
Storage: 128GB, 256GB
Rear cameras: 48MP wide (f/1.78), 8MP telephoto (3x, f/two.44), 48MP ultra-wide (f/two.two), 5MP color filter (f/2.iv)
Front end camera: 16MP (f/2.45)
Battery: 4,510 mAh
5G: Sub 6-GHz
Size: six.5 x 2.9 x 0.33
Weight: 7 ounces

Some may prefer the cheaper OnePlus 8, which now costs $599 and is sold through T-Mobile and Verizon — the OnePlus eight Pro is simply sold unlocked. But the OnePlus eight Pro is a better phone all around, with a smoother display, wireless charging and improve cameras.

Overall, the newer Samsung Milky way S21 Plus looks like a better option because it offers a dynamic 120Hz brandish along with more advanced cameras. And some may simply want to wait for the OnePlus ix this spring. Merely the OnePlus 8 Pro is a very expert Android phone and information technology still makes our best phones listing.

OnePlus eight review
OnePlus 8 vs OnePlus 8 Pro: What should you lot buy?
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra vs OnePlus 8 Pro: Which phone wins?

OnePlus 8 Pro price and avilability

The OnePlus eight Pro at present starts at $799 or £799 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. At the time of this writing, OnePlus does not offer the 8GB/128GB version. But overall that's a good price for that much storage.

The OnePlus Nord is not sold through U.S. carriers, simply you can all the same buy it directly from OnePlus through the OnePlus U.Southward. website and the OnePlus U.k. website.

OnePlus 8 Pro review: Design and colors

Samsung could learn something from the OnePlus viii Pro'due south design. It's gorgeous without existence a fingerprint magnet. The OnePlus 8 Pro uses matte-frosted glass using a new crafting process. The end is smooth to the touch only not slippery, and there's a visible sheen to the back of the phone that changes shades depending on how ambient light hits it.

The OnePlus 8 Pro comes in three colors: Onyx Black, Glacial Green and Ultramarine Blue. I tested the Ultramarine Blue model, which really pops but might exist a bit loud for some. The Glacial Green color is more than subtle simply more vibrant than the Midnight Green hue on the iPhone 11 Pro.

There'southward more good news. The OnePlus 8 Pro is IP68 rated, which makes this the starting time OnePlus phone to have that level of h2o resistance. That means the phone tin survive being submerged in 1.5 meters (five feet) of water for 30 minutes, thus earning it a spot on our listing of the best waterproof phones.

I do accept some complaints about the OnePlus eight Pro'south design. The first is that the curved screen is too curved for me. On multiple occasions I pressed something I didn't intend to; for example, I would be in the Google Play Store and my left pinky wrapped effectually the phone would open an app I didn't hateful to select. And on other occasions, I thought that the OnePlus 8 Pro wasn't registering my taps, only it turned out that my other manus was touching the screen.

My other issue is that the rear vertical photographic camera bump protrudes more from the back of the OnePlus 8 Pro than the camera patches do on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

The skilful news is that the OnePlus 8 Pro is fairly sleek given it's big 6.78-inch display. It measures 6.5 x 2.9 ten 0.33 inches and weighs 7 ounces, compared to 6.37 x ii.ix x 0.3 inches and six.56 ounces for the Milky way S20 Plus. So the OnePlus 8 Pro is bigger and taller than the S20 Plus, but that's understandable given that the Samsung has a smaller 6.7-inch screen. The OnePlus viii Pro is also lighter than the 7.26-ounce OnePlus seven Pro, by and large considering OnePlus ditched the pop-up selfie camera.

OnePlus viii Pro review: Display

The OnePlus 8 Pro possesses one of the best displays I've e'er tested on a telephone, which is saying something given that the iPhone xi Pro Max costs $200 more and the Galaxy S20 Plus is $400 more. Not only do yous become a super smooth 120Hz refresh charge per unit similar Samsung's flagship, simply the OnePlus 8 Pro gives you that rate even at its max 2K resolution. With the S20 line, you have to drop downward to 1080p resolution if you desire the higher 120Hz rate.

And so how does the OnePlus viii Pro screen expect? Dazzling. When I fired upward the Furious 9 trailer, the deep ruby Pontiac Fiero with a rocket strapped to its roof had plenty of dial, and I could make out fine details in its fortified olfactory organ. I watched another scene with the Galaxy S20 next with 120Hz manner on, and the OnePlus 8 Pro's panel looked a little smoother during the most frenetic action sequences, such every bit when Letty'southward (Michelle Rodriguez) motorbike collides with another motorcar in mid air.

The OnePlus viii Pro'due south flick looks and then polish cheers to what'due south called MEMC. A dedicated chip upsales videos on Netflix and YouTube from 24 fps upwardly to 120 fps. Amazon videos go up to 60 fps. Another plus is an HDR boosting characteristic that optimizes every frame, which results in deeper blacks and whiter whites. I did notice that faces were brighter even in darker areas when watching the James Bail No Time to Dice trailer on the OnePlus viii Pro compared to the Galaxy S20.

The OnePlus viii Pro is rated for 1,300 nits of brightness, and information technology was just as bright outdoors as the iPhone 11 Pro and Milky way S20 when viewing the Tom's Guide website. The OnePlus eight Pro's brandish also fared very well in our lab tests. The panel registered 165% of the sRGB color gamut and 116.9% in the more demanding DCI-P3 gamut. By comparison, the Milky way S20 Plus striking a college 224% on sRGB and 163.4 on DCI-P3. I did find more saturated hues on the S20 when watching the same scene on Tiger King on both phones, even with both displays set to vivid style.

The OnePlus 8 Pro does show more accurate colors than the Galaxy S20 Plus. On the Delta-East test, which measures colour accuracy, the OnePlus 8 Pro scored 0.26, compared to 0.36 for the Galaxy S20 Plus. A score of 0 is perfect, so lower scores are better. The OnePlus eight Pro even edged out the iPhone 11 Pro Max's score of 0.28.

OnePlus 8 Pro review: Cameras

The OnePlus 8 Pro is a remarkably capable camera phone and holds its own with the all-time camera phones in some scenarios. All the same, while the depression-light results were particularly impressive, the OnePlus 8 Pro struggled a bit versus the competition with portraits and shut-ups.

The OnePlus 8 Pro packs four rear cameras, including a 48-megapixel main camera with an f/1.78 aperture that will let you lot shoot at 48MP or 12MP. The 48MP mode is all-time for when you take a lot of ambient calorie-free. In that location's also a 8MP telephoto photographic camera with a 3x optical zoom, and ultra-wide 48MP camera with a 119-degree field of view and a dedicated 5MP colour filter camera that lets y'all apply artistic filters as you're shooting.

As you lot tin encounter in this photo of a nearly empty Times Square, the OnePlus 8 Pro does a fine job capturing the surrounding billboards without blowing out the sunny sky. You can make out details in the clouds as well equally in the surrounding signs.

To test out the 48MP camera fashion, I captured a photo of some Easter decorations and spring flowers at the Twin Pond Farms land market in Howell, NJ. The 48MP photo delivered crisper details across the lath, including in the bunnies' faces and their harbinger artillery. Plus, you lot have a lot more than freedom with this amount of detail to crop in vs 12MP mode.

I put the OnePlus 8 Pro'south camera upward against the Galaxy S20 Pro in this photo of a stream at a NJ park. The Galaxy S20 delivers more than vibrant colors, especially in the grass, and it's a warmer photo overall, but the OnePlus eight Pro's shot offers more true-to-life colors and more than detail when you zoom in, specially on the left side of the image underneath the trees.

The OnePlus 8 Pro fell a bit flat versus the iPhone 11 Pro Max in this portrait comparing. While the bokeh effect is convincing with the blurred flowering tree in the background, there's overall image is hazier than the iPhone xi Pro's shot. Yous can also make out a lot more than detail in my green jacket in the iPhone 11 Pro portrait. Another bummer: you tin can't conform the level of mistiness after the fact equally yous can on the Galaxy S20.

To test out the 3x optical zoom on the OnePlus 8 Pro, I snapped this photo of a colorful baseball dugout with it and the Milky way S20. Here I give Samsung's phone a slight border; the "Go Freehold" text is easier to read, and the orange, imperial, pink and blue in the painting are more than vibrant than on the OnePlus 8 Pro. Yet, the details are near as sharp in both photos.

To test the OnePlus 8 Pro'southward Nightscape way, I snapped a photo of a candle in almost consummate darkness. And this phone did a much better task capturing the wick and flame than the iPhone 11 Pro Max did; they got blown out in the latter pic. However, the iPhone managed to deliver a brighter overall epitome, every bit it's easier to make out the runner on the table.

How about close-ups? The OnePlus 8 Pro struggled in this shot of flowers. The eye of the frame is in focus, but the surrounding flowers get blurred in with the remainder of the tree. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S20'due south shot delivers a brighter white in the flowers and more detail in the petals.

Equally for the colour filter camera, I don't know if information technology really needs to exist. You can apply similar effects afterward you shoot on most camera phones. The choices on the OnePlus Pro 8 range from matte and bright to black and white. But the near appealing — and strange — color filter is Photochrom. This commonly refers to a process of producing colorized images from black-and-white photographic negatives.

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As y'all tin can encounter in this example, Photochrom takes a green tree and grass and turns them into an odd cream colour. It makes my neighborhood look like it's experiencing a nuclear winter. The same style made me see what my living room burrow would look like if it changed from nighttime grey to foam.

The 16MP forepart camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro snaps satisfying selfies, especially compared to the Galaxy S20. While Samsung's phone has a trend to overly smooth faces and wash them out, the OnePlus eight Pro delivered a more than realistic portrait. Yes, the wrinkles effectually my eyes and in my brow are more visible, merely I too capeesh the warmer skin tone and more than detail in my hair that the OnePlus viii Pro offered.

OnePlus 8 Pro review: Performance

As you lot would await the OnePlus 8 Pro packs the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip to deliver blazing performance, and it's paired with LPDDR5 RAM, which is designed to boost memory speeds by 30% while lowering ability consumption past xx%. In addition, OnePlus includes a RAM booster for accelerating gaming and speeding upwardly daily performance by learning your usage of the device.

Overall, I was impressed with the OnePlus viii Pro's speed. I enjoyed silky polish performance when playing Call of Duty; fifty-fifty with multiple enemies on screen I didn't feel lag. And the Asphalt 9 racing game felt well-nigh too fast every bit I flipped in the air off some ramps.

On Geekbench 5, which measures overall functioning, the OnePlus 8 Pro scored 3,379 on the multi-cadre portion of the test and 906 on unmarried-core. Both of those numbers beat the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus (3,076/818). The iPhone 11 Pro Max trumped both phones with multi- and single-core results of three,517 and 1,334.

The OnePlus eight Pro was but slightly behind the Milky way S20 on the GFXBench graphics benchmark. When we ran the 1440p Atzec Ruins OpenGL (high tier) offscreen test, the OnePlus 8 Pro delivered 20 fps, compared to 21 fps for the Samsung.

Nevertheless, the OnePlus 8 Pro fell behind the Galaxy S20 Plus on our real-world video editing test. Using Adobe Rush to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, information technology took the OnePlus eight Pro 1 minute and 43 seconds, compared to i:14 for the S20 Plus. The iPhone 11 Pro Max beat them all with 45 seconds.

OnePlus viii Pro review: 5G

The good news is that the OnePlus viii Pro supports 5G networks. The bad news is that this phone doesn't support mmWave networks, which means you won't get the fastest 5G speeds. The phone'southward X55 5G modem supports sub-6GHz 5G, low and mid ring. Only the regular OnePlus eight sold through Verizon supports mmWave.

Using T-Mobile's 5G network I ran several tests using the Speedtest app, and downloads from the OnePlus 8 Pro ranged from 85 Mbps down to 105 Mbps, which is not blazing merely improve than my iPhone 11 Pro Max over Verizon 4G LTE (65 Mbps downward). The OnePlus viii Pro's upload speeds did not impress, averaging 11 Mbps.

OnePlus 8 Pro review: Bombardment life

The OnePlus 8 Pro packs a 4,510 mAh battery, which is slightly bigger than the four,500 mAh bombardment in the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus. And this phone delivered impressive endurance in our battery test, which involved continuous spider web surfing over 5G on 150 nits of screen brightness. The OnePlus eight Pro lasted an excellent xi hours and 5 minutes with the display set to 60 Hz. That runtime bests the Galaxy S20 Plus by nigh a half hour, every bit Samsung'south phone lasted 10:31.

Putting the phone into 120Hz style did accept a toll on battery life, as the OnePlus viii Pro lasted only 9 hours and two minutes. Still, this effect also bests the Galaxy S20 Plus (viii:55). Notation that nosotros ran our bombardment exam on total Hard disk resolution and not quad HD, but we will update this review once we've run another series of tests.

OnePlus viii Pro fast charging and wireless charging

The OnePlus 8 Pro isn't but the first OnePlus phone to offer wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. It's officially the fastest wireless charging phone in the world.

Thanks to a special Warp Charge 30 Wireless charger, available for $65, you tin juice the OnePlus eight Pro faster than whatever standard Qi wireless charger for iPhones or Android phones. For example, Samsung'south fast wireless charger for the Galaxy S20 charges at 15 watts; the Warp Accuse 30 wireless doubles that power.

In our testing, the OnePlus 8 Pro charged to 55 pct in just thirty minutes, which is how long the iPhone 11 Pro takes to fast accuse with its fast wired charger. In order to foreclose overheating, the Warp Charge 30 wireless has its own congenital-in fan; you lot can hear it, but it's not distractingly loud. The but bummer is that the wireless charger doesn't piece of work with the phone in landscape style, dissimilar several third-political party chargers.

The included wired charger is fifty-fifty faster, as it took the OnePlus 8 Pro from 0 percent to 63% in 30 minutes and to 34% ability in fifteen minutes.

OnePlus 8 Pro review: OxygenOS

OnePlus' OxygenOS does not have a lot of new features to speak of, just information technology adds some welcome goodies on peak of Android x. This includes an improved universal dark mode that's now compatible with more apps and fun dynamic wallpapers that subtly shift color tones based on the outdoor temperature.

OnePlus gives you lot ii ways to unlock the OnePlus eight Pro: an in-screen fingerprint scanner and face unlock. I found the fingerprint scanner to be pretty quick, and then long equally yous're deliberate with the press. Just Face Unlock is fifty-fifty quicker on this telephone, and I can see nigh people opting for that starting time. Simply continue in mind that your fingerprint or Pivot is more secure, considering OnePlus' 2d Face Unlock isn't equally sophisticated equally the 3D facial recognition in the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4.

OnePlus 8 Pro vs OnePlus eight

If y'all're trying to decide between the OnePlus 8 Pro and the OnePlus 8, cheque out our OnePlus viii vs OnePlus eight Pro face up-off. Only there'southward the gist. The OnePlus 8 Pro gives yous a bigger display with a faster refresh charge per unit (vi.78 inches and 120Hz vs 6.55 inches and 90 Hz), a 3x telephoto camera, wireless charging and faster RAM. Plus, only the OnePlus 8 Pro is IP68 h2o resistant.

However, the regular OnePlus 8 benefits from being cheaper at $699 vs $899 for the OnePlus Pro, and only the OnePlus 8 is sold through wireless carriers in T-Mobile and Verizon. And the Verizon OnePlus 8 Pro supports mmWave 5G, which the OnePlus 8 Pro doesn't take.

OnePlus eight Pro review: Verdict

The OnePlus viii Pro is at present a better value thanks to the price reduction past OnePlus. And you lot get a lot for your money, including a 120Hz mode that doesn't force you to choose betwixt a fast refresh rate and the highest resolution and long battery life. Plus, the OnePlus 8 Pro offers the fastest wireless charging around.

The OnePlus 8 Pro's cameras are not the best in its class, and I wish OnePlus went with a apartment display instead of a curved 1, simply overall the OnePlus viii Pro is nonetheless one of the better Android phones you can purchase. I would but go on an eye out for the upcoming OnePlus ix and OnePlus 9 Pro if y'all want the fastest speeds and even better cameras.

Mark Spoonauer is the global editor in chief of Tom's Guide and has covered technology for virtually 20 years. In addition to overseeing the direction of Tom's Guide, Marking specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at key manufacture events and appears regularly on TV to talk over the latest trends. Marking was previously editor in master of Laptop Mag, and his piece of work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.